Three immigration stories on front burner this week

Three major immigration-related stories are likely to get headlines this week.

Besides a national petition asking GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to cut ties with anti-Latino, anti-immigrant supporters, many are watching the Supreme Court’s hearing of Arizona’s anti-immigration law, while the Pew Hispanic Center is scheduled to release a new study on Mexican immigration.

First, the high court:

The Justice Department, among other entities, has challenged the Arizona law. Read more here and here.

Second:

The Pew Hispanic Center releases a new report today on Mexican immigration to the United States. Its title says it all: “Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero — and Maybe Less.” It’s scheduled to be online at 1 p.m. central time on the Pew site.

Lastly:

Latino voting advocates and DREAMers, college students and others fighting for passage of the DREAM Act, will launch a national online petition today “demanding Romney publicly cut ties with Kris Kobach, Jan Brewer, Russell Pearce, Nikki Haley and other anti-Latino, anti-immigrant extremists.”

The group is based in Pennsylvania. The petition drive “Su Voz, Mi Voto” asks Latino voters to consider “their undocumented friends, family members and classmates” when they go to the polls in November.

Its press release says “Romney can’t etch-a-sketch away his record of calling the Arizona ‘papers please’ anti-immigration law a ‘model’ for the nation or (promise) to veto the DREAM Act.”

They point to stories in which Romney called Arizona immigration law a “model” for the rest of the nation. Read that here, and another in which Pearce says Romney’s policy is “identical to mine” here.